Why Chelsea won’t have a shirt sponsor at Club World Cup despite DAMAC success | OneFootball

Kieran Gill’s latest Chelsea Confidential for the Daily Mail is full of interesting information about the Blues and their trip to the USA to play in the Club World Cup.

They kick off tomorrow night against LAFC, and fans will notice their shirts are back to being blank on the front.

FIFA rules complicate Chelsea’s sponsor situation

Dubai property company DAMAC swooped in to cover the end of the season, but according to Gill, FIFA made it hard for short term sponsors to be used at their new flagship club tournament:

“Mail Sport has been told Club World Cup rules made it difficult for clubs such as Chelsea to find a sponsor purely for this tournament, as they would need to be contracted for the upcoming 2025-26 campaign also,” he wrote.

“In addition, FIFA have told participants that whatever shirt they start with, they must finish with, meaning a logo could not suddenly appear on their fronts at the halfway stage.”

That kills any chance of a quick buck for BlueCo, although one would imagine it would not have been that lucrative given how hard it has been for FIFA to sell the TV rights.

DAMAC as Chelsea’s lucky charm

Levi Colwill with a Chelsea news logo. (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)

“Chelsea announced Dubai-headquartered DAMAC Properties for the end of the 2024-25 season, but that deal only covered the final few games of the Premier League and Conference League,” he added.

“They may have proven a lucky charm as they finished in the top four and won their first trophy under their BlueCo owners.”

So Enzo Maresca and his team will have to play this tournament without their unlikely lucky charm… we wonder if they will go back to how they were playing in March before DAMAC turned up? We certainly hope not.